Kristy Tillman is design director at Society of Grownups, a company offering financial services. They call it “ A masters program for adulthood” where the curriculum covers everything from investing in a 401K to having that hard talk about a budget to how to pick good, cheap wine. She’s a beast on Twitter, sitting at 10k tweets to date, and prominently tweets on pop culture, music, and social justice.
We discuss opportunities for Blacks in technology, design, and IDEO.
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Everette Taylor is an entrepreneur and marketing pro who served as Chief Marketing Officer at Sticker Mule. The hugely popular custom stickers startup. He’s also founder at MilliSense, a marketing firm headquartered in Los Angeles. He built GrowthHackers with three partners, and partnered with NFL free safety Brandian Ross to create the brand Unity Over Self, which helps children with autism.
We discuss how students coming out of college break into marketing for startups, and tips for startup teams to get to Product Market Fit.
This episode is brought to you by Classana. Find the best books to read and classes to take on Classana.com
Angela Benton is founder and CEO at NewMe Accelerator in San Francisco. She serves as a startup coach at the Wall Street Journa, and writes for USA Today and Inc. Magazine.
On this episode, we talk diversity in tech, the "Black Mark Zuckerberg", and what makes founders successful.
This episode is brought to you by Classana. Find the best books to read and classes to take on Classana.com.
Season 2 Finale features:
Brian Watson is the Director of Partnerships at Visual Supply Company - the makers of the hit photo app VSCO Cam. He’s formerly an investment analyst at Union Square Ventures, the powerhouse VC firm led by Fred Wilson and boasting early investments in Soundcloud and Twitter. Brian and I discuss the Detroit tech scene, Paul Judge quotes, and the need for external validation.
Richard Kerby is a venture capitalist and Vice President at Venrock, the venture firm located in Palo Alto. He’s been profiled by CNN, and TheSearchLights Project, he’s also been a guest contributor to TechCrunch - which we’ll discuss. As a VC, his focus is on early stage startups as he bounces from New York to Silicon Valley, while keeping his eye on all points in between.
Dwayne Reeves is a software engineering lead at Facebook based in Menlo Park, CA. He's also an MIT grad and one of the poster boys for successful blacks in tech. We discuss his daily responsibilities at Facebook, the lost dreams of Google, imposter syndrome and Christian hip hop.
Ashley Nelson-Hornstein is an iOS engineer at Dropbox - another of my favorite startups. Previous to Dropbox, she spent time at Apple and the news startup, Circa. She’s not only an incredibly talented developer, she also evangelizes for Dropbox around the world speaking at tech conferences. Her popularity is growing - along with the products she builds.
Frederick Hutson is the founder and CEO at Pigeonly - which is a startup that creates tech products designed to help prisoners communicate. Beyond the ingenuity of his ideas, Frederick himself is an anomaly. Once just a budding entrepreneur in his 20’s, his entrepreneurial spunk was exercised in an industry that landed him behind bars with a sentence of 51 months. But, Mr. Hutson prevails, and he’s fresh out of Y Combinator and fueled by not a little bit of investment dollars.
Aston Motes was employee #1 at the quote - unquote ‘Unicorn’ startup Dropbox. This is a startup he helped usher into the billion-dollar club. An MIT grad and drummer - we deliberate about curiosity, posit black music, and thrash out starting startups where competition is already heavy.
Grant Oladipo is an MIT grad and serves as the mobile lead at Medium, founded by Ev Williams - the co-founder and former CEO at Twitter. Medium classifies itself as a new place on the internet where people share ideas and stories that are longer than 140 characters, and not just for friends.
On this episode, we discuss how to find your way in San Fransisco, his favorite books, and keeping focus on your startup.
Baratunde Thurston is a writer, comedian, podcaster, startup founder, and New York Times bestselling author. We chatted about success and failure, as well as his startup Cultivated Wit.
On this episode, I talk to the dynamic Kimberly Bryant of BlackGirlsCode. Kimberly was a professional biotechnology engineer before founding the program and has been recognized by Oprah Winfrey and Toyota for her work during Oprah's The Life You Want tour. She's been commended by the White House as a tech champion, and has been profiled by Forbes, MademeNoire, Marie Claire, and CNN.
Part 2 features a discussion with Semil Shah, a VC at Haystack Fund on his ideas on minority tech entrepreneurship, and his thoughts on how we might find solutions to issues in investment capital.
On this episode, I chat with Navarrow Wright, CEO at MaxLev Solutions and co-founder at Global Grind which he founded alongside Hip Hop Pioneer Russell Simmons. We discuss the complexities of getting young minorities interested in tech and STEM education.
On part 2, JJ McCorvey, an editor at Fast Company Magazine. We discuss his work covering technology companies, and his cover story which featured Walker & Company founder and CEO, Tristan Walker.
On part 3, I chat with Maryanna Quigless who is founder at TiltFit about getting introduced to technology and Silicon Valley, and black female founders.
On this episode, I chat with Jon Gosier, an investor at Third Cohort Capital, Serial Entrepreneur, and past TED Fellow. We talk about music studios in Atlanta, international experiences, and investing in startups.
On part 2, Alaxic Smith, cofounder at Communly, an online platform which allows users to unite in virtual communities with others who have similar interests. We discuss his startup journey and education.
On this episode, I chat with co-founder and VP of Growth at Balanced, Jareau Wade. We discuss financial technology (FinTech) startups, getting more kids involved in technology, and ramble a bit about our history with the music industry.
Part 2 features Lo Toney, a venture capitalist at Comcast Ventures. He spent time as the chief executive officer at Learnstreet that provided online education for computer programmers. He was also the executive in charge of Zynga Poker at Zynga. We talk about startup funding, Miles Davis and Rachmaninoff, and his journey in technology.
On Part 1: This chat with Erin Teague who is Director of Product at Yahoo is refreshing. You'll hear her talk about everything from her top 5 favorite rappers, to the constant awareness of how gender and race affects the mindset of many minorities in tech. It's an honest reflection on the thought process of a technology executive even at the highest levels.
Part 2: Wayne Sutton was featured on CNN's Black in America in 2011 as co-founder of a high profile minority-focused accelerator in Silicon Valley and he's been on a rocket ever since. Founder at BUILDUP.vc, Wayne is insightful on the landscape of San Francisco for startup founders on non-traditional paths.
On this episode, I chat with the phenomenal Charles Hudson of SoftTech VC on part 1. At SoftTech, Charles is a partner and focuses on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, mobile applications, and marketplaces.
We discuss venture capital, the perfect pitch, music, and Charles drops knowledge bombs one after another.
Part 2: Megan Rose Dickey. A rockstar personality, recovering journalist, and all around tech enthusiast. We discuss her journey in technology and startup storytelling.
Part 1: In this chat with Snapchat QA Engineer Justin Washington, we discuss his journey to the ultra-popular and high-growth startup Snapchat, how he became a believer in the product, and working with Steve Jobs.
We also talk about growing up in the midwest (he’s from Detroit), ambitions in the music business, and both of our impeccable tastes in music.
Part 2: Brian Dixon is very smart, and he knows startups and pitching like the back of his hand. He’s a VC at Kapor Capital, a venture firm focused on startups making a significant social impact. In his role, he’s on the hunt for the next big thing.
We talk about how to pitch effectively to get VC attention, and Silicon Valley.
On this episode, I chat with two incredible and accomplished minorities in tech, Michael Seibel of Y Combinator, and Hadiyah Muhjid of Black Founders + Playpen Labs.
Michael was a co-founder at Justin.TV which rebranded as Twitch and sold to Amazon for close to a billion dollars in 2014. He recently became a full partner at the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator for startups.
Hadiyah is a full stack software engineer. She graduated with her CS degree from University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and received her MBA from Drexel. She founded Black Founders, an organization which serves as a platform for minorities in technology in Silicon Valley and across the US.
On this episode, I chat with Makinde Adeagbo, the Engineering Manager at Pinterest which brands itself as '...a place to discover ideas for all your projects and interests, hand-picked by people like you.'
Makinde displays his thoughtfulness and smarts in the fun chat. He’s such a smart guy and we could’ve talked for another hour. We discuss his growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, his thoughts on whether or not kids should be coding at an early age, and tips for startup growth hacking.
Makinde has done some extreme marathons, including a 50 mile race in 2012. We’ll chat briefly about that.